ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a focal point to examine the long process of modernization of China from the late Qing to the current era of reforms in a global context. It examines the change of landscape from a traditional agrarian society to modern factories in treaty ports, where the formerly salubrious cities were eroded by environmental degradation, pollution, slums, disease and filth of a typical industrializing urban setting. The book also examines the tensions of Chinese and foreign relations, traditional cultural norms and modern concepts, practice of sanitary and epidemic control, and the attempts of various groups to shape the future of China. It focuses on the construction of a modern national health system by the medical elite of the Nationalist government and the creative development of health programs by the CCP in their revolutionary regions.
